Month: July 2017

This week’s items in the news include a couple from the world of academia, where you are now required to break up in an appropriate, University-approved way or you will be suspended. Continue reading “Mid-Week Quick Takes”

The Defense Dept. announced late last week that the head of ISIS in Afghanistan. Abu Sayed, head of the organization in Afghanistan, was killed by a drone strike this week in another series of high profile defeats for ISIS since the beginning of the year. In 2017, this is the third high ranking leader that has been killed in Afghanistan.

As well, the Iraqi government announced that it had retaken the city of Mosul from ISIS giving a major setback to the radical Muslim group. Mosul is the biggest city held by ISIS, and taking Mosul was announced at the same time that Iraqi forces are battling for Raqqa, the self-declared capital of the ISIS ‘caliphate’.

Pentagon Changes Obama’s Mandate on What to Call Terrorist Organization

On a related note, earlier this year the Pentagon also did away with the order from the Obama Administration that the radical Muslim group be referred to as ‘ISIL’ and now refers to the group primarily as ‘ISIS’ as is done most widely around the world. Pretty much alone in using that term, the Obama Administration required every part of the Executive Branch to refer to the group as ‘ISIL’.

Why is that significant? Well, it’s much more than many realize. ISIL was short for the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” instead of ISIS which was the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”. So why did Obama demand that everyone use the term ‘ISIL’? Because the Levant (the ‘L’ in ISIL) was what that area of the world was called before Israel became a nation. President Obama was showing his anti-Jewish bias by forcing a reference back to a time before Israel was a nation. So much so that the liberal President ordered literally the words that his staff could use.

One can only guess why no one called it what it was before now—evidence of President Obama’s anti-Jewish prejudices.

Defense Spending by NATO Allies

For all of President Trump’s (many) faults, and his often less than civil and diplomatic ways, his ranting against NATO allies and their low defense spending seems to have had at least some effect. NATO countries have increased defense spending by a combined $22 billion this year.

In a Bloomberg poll released earlier this week, we find results that show Hillary Clinton is even more unpopular than President Trump. Bucking trends that historically show losing candidates gaining somewhat in popularity in the year after the election, Hillary has even higher negative numbers than she did at election time and roughly two percent worse negative numbers than Trump.

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The US Post Office has been losing money for years. To help turnaround its finances, the Post Office has decided to sell off a number of properties that it no longer considers valuable. The properties being sold are expected to go for roughly $1.9 billion.

Interestingly, the husband of Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) has received the exclusive contract to sell the real estate and expects to generate tens of millions of dollars in commissions. An exclusive contract, which includes all parts of the country.

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And finally, headlines today include a story that at the G20 summit of world leaders President Trump met with President Putin twice. That’s it. That’s the headline. Apparently, it is somehow unusual that at a meeting of world leaders that one head of state met with another head of state twice? I don’t get it. The time spent on the story on TV news included nothing that would seem to be of concern, no indication that there was anything inappropriate, just that Trump met with Putin. The leaders of the two largest military powers in the world met was not only news and headline breaking news, for some reason. And the media wonder why there is ever increasing questions about their relevance?

The Republican majority in the Senate has given up and will not be considering a healthcare reform plan after failing to get enough Senators to back the measure, even after a number of revisions. Thus, healthcare reform and the repeal or replacement of Obamacare is probably dead. Continue reading “GOP Saves Obamacare”